While it is important to look at data and statistics, are marketers becoming so consumed with these mathematical areas that they are forgetting about intuition and creativity? As Mike Teasdale of Harvest Digital explains to WebProNews, this is, in fact, a growing trend among marketers.

He gives an example in which a marketing director in the UK was asked where he would spend a large sum of money if it were given to him. The marketing director decided that although he didn’t have a lot of data on public relations, he felt PR was the best area the money could be spent.

This example made Teasdale realize how much marketers really do depend on data. However, it is important for marketers to also realize that there are a lot of things happening in other areas, such as social and press. Although it is difficult to measure and obtain data from these areas, they have a powerful impact on marketing.

In other words, Teasdale believes that marketers who are intuitive and creative could essentially be more effective than marketers who are entirely focused on data and statistics. He says, “My view is, you can optimize your way to a better version of the present, but you won’t find the future.”

Teasdale also believes more creative things should happen online. He even says that Google is somewhat restricted in its marketing efforts due to its position in the market. Since the search giant brings in so much revenue, it is hard for the company to try to anything new or imaginative out of fear of failure. As a result, Teasdale says companies such as Bing could have greater opportunities to be creative since it doesn’t have as much to lose.

What do you think? Are marketers so consumed with data that they are neglecting creativity?